No One Lives Review

WWE Studios' No One Lives is not a “good” film. The acting is stilted, the dialogue is unrealistic at best and unbelievably laughable at worst. The characters have only the thinnest of motivations, and the script is just a mess. But this is not the kind of film you go to for those things.

No One Lives is the story of a psycho killer hellbent on revenge. After losing his one “special” victim to a gang of backwoods thugs and criminals, he decides to violently kill everyone until he recaptures her. Ultra-violent innovative kills, with lots of blood, are exactly what you see a film like this for. This is the kind of camp horror-thriller that works best when it moves quickly and kills often.

The kills here are really fun, and very violent. It’s no wonder since No One Lives comes to us from Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura, who brought the world the awesomeness of Versus and The Midnight Meat Train. He once again sticks with what works best: blood and gore. Some of the high points include a grotesque wood chipper scene, and our killer antihero finding a uniquely disturbing way to hitch a ride back to the gang’s hideout. Think Taunton. The film's biggest problem is there aren't enough kills and too much downtime between said scenes.

The cast is small, but mostly pretty girls, and hard-looking criminals. Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans, Immortals) gives his all to the lead psycho role. He may be a bit too pretty for it, but he makes up for that quickly enough with lots of joyful kills. He seems like he had fun making this movie.

That “special” victim is Emma (Adelaide Clemens from the upcoming Silent Hill: Revelation 3D), a captive and mostly unwilling protegee of the killer. She plays the part deadpan, trying to let us figure out whose side she’s on but it rarely works. Her character's inclusion may be the MacGuffin to propel the story, but if she had been developed better this could have been something totally original. As it stands, she's mostly just annoying. The supporting cast includes WWE powerhouse Brodus Clay, aka George Murdoch, who gives the gang some much needed menace and muscle.

The characters act a little too dumb to be believable. At one point our nameless hero gears up like something right out of The Punisher. Loaded with guns and crossbows, he sets up a series of elaborate traps that could never really work. And despite a scene where he actually explains his motivation directly to a victim like something a bad Bond villain would do, most of his set-up doesn't make a lick of sense.

The supporting characters are two-dimensional, which is acceptable as they're supposed to be expendable stereotypes, but why make us endure so many minutes of their stupid dialogue then?

If you like this kind of a film, and you should already know if you do, then you'll likely enjoy No One Lives. It's not the best Kitamura has made, but there's fun and some solid violence to be had, just be sure you know what you're getting into.